Meet Sheker Goud from Hyderabad. Today he is here to share his life journey so far and to be precise his visible impairment.
Sheker comes from a very humble background and hails from Nalgonda in Telangana. He was studying a certificate course in Electrical trade from Nalgonda ITI. On 24 December, 2006 he was speaking over on his mobile phone and sitting on a wall which was adjacent to an electrical transformer, it was a rented house in which he was living while doing the certificate course. While he was completely engrossed in the conversation with his friend, he had no idea how he slipped from the wall and fell down. As he could recollect now, on one side there was a transformer and on the other side there were electrical wires. It was situation where his life was at stake, if he had held electrical wire, there was death and if he had fallen down on transformer again there was death.
As human mind process information fast when there is a danger for life, same thing happened for him. His mind immediately sent the message hold the wire at once and that holding the wire changed his life forever………
Recalling the incident, he narrates “What happened to me after that I had no idea, next morning when I opened my eyes and I was amongst the dead bodies. To my amazement I was in a mortuary. I could not believe as to what happened to me, I mustered the courage and started walking out of mortuary. As you know ours is country which believes in ghosts, people started thinking that I am also one. They were really scared of me and started running here and there in order to escape my presence amongst them.
I approached the general ward which was just adjoining to the mortuary and didn’t find any medical staff to take care of my wounds. I was terribly hungry because I had not eaten even a single grain for more than 24 hours and had lost significant amount of blood. I had no energy left in my right arm which was impacted badly and also in left leg as well as right foot. My right arm became just like a piece of flesh with no movement at all in it. My left leg was also badly injured however was still supporting me in walking. My right leg foot was badly damaged. As there was no energy left in my body, I wanted to eat something immediately, I approached the hospital staff for food but their statement was that I cannot be provided with the food because I am not a registered patient with hospital and they bluntly denied me giving any food.
Luckily I had 50 rupees in my pocket, I approached a cleaner of the hospital if he could help, I requested him to call my parents and get me some food to eat. He helped me with bringing the food and calling my parents. Within 3 hours my entire family was there in the hospital and they scolded the hospital authority and confronted with them that as to how come a living person can be put in a mortuary. When it comes to serving food you ask for hospital registration, then how come can you put a person in mortuary without the registration? I had lost the initial 9 golden hours, had the treatment been given on time, both of my limbs could have been saved.
Frustrated with the apathetic behavior of Government Hospital at Nalgonda, my family members decided to take me to Kamineni Hospital in Narkatpalli in Nalgonda, they were also not taking me because of my serious condition. As we know that private hospitals are more interested in making money rather than doing charity.
My family members requested Kamineni Hospital to admit me without thinking about money. They agreed with one condition that the chances of survival are only 10% and we can’t take any guarantee. My family members agreed and admitted me in the hospital.
As I had lost the significant amount of blood and infection to my wounds was aggravating, doctors’ panel decided to amputate wounded arm and that’s where my ordeal started. They amputated it once and infection reached to next level and there was another round of amputation. It took a total of four surgeries for my hand to reach at this level where I am today. The Sheker which is standing in front of you has undergone a total of 15 surgeries to breath in this state.”
His family has sold their farming land and the house in which they were living and spent approximately 12 Lakhs Rupees for the treatment.
Despite all these ups and downs of his life, Sheker did not give up on life and pursued sports to rebuild his confidence and become a motivation for people in general.
He recalls “My first attempt in sports was in 2013 when I ran for airtel Marathon 5 kms with Jaipur foot. After I completed that marathon, I was sponsored by Dakshin Rehabilitation Center of Hyderabad for my walking leg and running blade. Since then I have participated in 11 marathons and various cycling races and rides. I did rock climbing, cave walk, swimming and badminton. After trying all these sports I have chosen two sports and those are running and cycling.”
His achievements so far:
He has completed 14 marathons and his best timing is 1 hour 14 mnts for 10 kms. And 1 half marathon 21km in deharadoon in 3:00:39 sec
He has attempted 200 kms brevet cycling event and completed 169 kms in 16 hours.
Last Word: He wants to be a successful para-athelete and his immediate aim is to complete the ‘Leh-Ladhakh to Kanyakumari’